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Andrew McCabe. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

A hero only to a lynch mob

- The Washington Times

Only a few days ago Andrew McCabe was nobody's idea of a hero, except to James Comey and maybe Robert Mueller. They think Mr. McCabe, tarnished or not, cashiered or not as the deputy director of the FBI, purveyor of fibs, stretchers and lies with and without varnish, might still be useful to their campaign to bring down Donald Trump.

Hillary Clinton. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

One last dance with Hillary

- The Washington Times

There's scarcely a pundit, wise guy or blowhard at the end of the bar who hasn't sworn off Hillary Clinton, vowing that it's time to find something new to rant and rave about.

Robert E. Lee

Can California do what the Confederacy couldn't?

- The Washington Times

California has no cannon guarding San Francisco Bay, and it's not likely that anybody at City Hall would know how to use one if there were, but Jeff Sessions, the U.S. attorney general, nevertheless has some wise words along with his lawsuit against California's sanctuary cities seeking to nullify federal immigration law.

George McGovern. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

The Democrats ponder a second McGovern fling

- The Washington Times

The silly season arrives early. Considerably more than a dozen prospective Democratic candidates for president in 2020 are lining up to talk about how they would dispatch the Donald to the island of discarded presidents.

The president Donald Trump could have been

- The Washington Times

The $64,000 question in Washington, still a lively speculation well into the second year of the Trump era, is whether Donald Trump with a little self-discipline could have accomplished more than he has, or whether a disciplined Donald could accomplish anything at all.

Shirley Chisholm. ** FILE **

Dreamy dreams in the Democratic bubble

- The Washington Times

Some of the worthies on the left have counted the votes and the Democrats have their nominee for 2020. It's either Oprah or Kamala Harris, or maybe Michelle Obama. Everyone's too giddy to get it all straight, but whether Oprah or Michelle or Kamala, someone's got the fork to stick in the Donald, and he'll be done.

Kim il-Sung (Associated Press)

Billy Graham, preaching from the belly of the beast

- The Washington Times

Five of us from The Washington Times were invited to Pyongyang in April 1992 by Kim Il-Sung, the grandfather of Rocket Man. The man called "the Great Leader," regarded as the founder of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, wanted to open his hermit kingdom to the world, and we were the first Western newspapermen to test whether North Korea could withstand a regiment of editors and reporters in their midst for 11 days.

Vladimir Putin. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Everybody's playing the new game in town

- The Washington Times

Washington measures everything and everyone by politics, and dysfunction is the new game in town. Rant and rage has become the lingua franca of the nation's capital. Taking the measure of Robert Mueller's indictment of 13 Russian cybernauts for interfering on Vladimir Putin's behalf in the 2016 presidential campaign is easy.

Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, arrives at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (Associated Press)

The snookered press at Pyeongchang

- The Washington Times

When Kim Jong-un dispatched his crack propaganda team to Pyeongchang (and not P.F. Chang, the Chinese restaurant chain, as reported by NBC News) to cover the Winter Olympics, he couldn't have imagined that the American media in town would have been so easy to con.

George Soros. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

A new world order coming to a theater near you

- The Washington Times

The picture should start to come clear any day now. The London Express, which often reports things that nobody else has heard of, not even on the internet where there are no editors and anything goes, reports that the Illuminati is real and is secretly running the world from behind the scenes.

Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward, right, and Carl Bernstein photographed May 7, 1973. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

The surveillance state is here, and to stay

- The Washington Times

If great Washington scandals come in threes, as disasters are said to do, we're there. First there was Watergate, regarded as the granddaddy of them all. A third-rate burglary at the Watergate Hotel grew to a scandal big enough to cashier a president.

Alan Dershowitz. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Free speech, beware the Judas goat

- The Washington Times

Beware the Judas goat, who leads unsuspecting cattle down a stockyards chute to the slaughter pen, stepping aside at the last minute to preserve his own survival.

People march in support of female empowerment and women's rights Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018, in Portland, Ore. Participants in the #MeToo March gathered at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Associated Press photo

The deadly ignorance on the road to Rome

- The Washington Times

If America follows Athens and Rome down the memory hole of history — and no nation is immune to the march of time — it won't be by conquest, famine, flood or earthquake, but by the inevitable consequences of ignorance. It's sometimes difficult to think we're not already on the way.

Theodor Herzl. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

The growing friendship of evangelicals and Jews

- The Washington Times

The friendship between America's growing Christian evangelical movement and the state of Israel has been something to complain about for years, both in the United States and in Israel. The American Jewish community is more comfortable with more respectable Christians, without a lot of "Jesus stuff," and the "Jesus stuff" embarrasses some American Christians, too.

President Donald Trump listens during a dinner with European business leaders at the World Economic Forum, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, in Davos. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump crashes the gasbag party at Davos

- The Washington Times

Donald Trump crashed the party in Davos late Thursday and the world's economic and cultural elite, and those worthies could only glumly concede that the biggest button, the biggest airplane and the biggest ego puts them and their airs in the shade.

Former President Barack Obama. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Another day at work, another congressional tantrum

- The Washington Times

Throwing tantrums and shutting down the government is a bipartisan sport. Both Republicans and Democrats have now thrown this particular tantrum, like children fighting over a toy, and it's great fun only for the tantrum-throwers. The rest of us, and that includes both Democrats and Republicans, are not much amused.

Former President Richard Nixon. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

An Olympian break in the war between the words

- The Washington Times

A few Ping-Pong balls broke the Cold War ice around China a generation ago, following Richard Nixon's stunning trip to Beijing (when it was still called Peiping), and soon the United States and China were on their way to normal diplomatic relations.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Democrats decree death in the swamp for the Dreamers

- The Washington Times

Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and their Democratic followers laid a careful trap for their Republican tormentors, and then fell in it. The Republican leadership can keep them from climbing out if they're smart and show a little courage.

Barry Goldwater campaigning in 1964. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

The sorehead losers of 2016 suggest a familiar solution

- The Washington Times

President Trump goes in for his annual physical Friday, and the doctors will only look at things like his blood pressure, listen to his heart, bang on his knees with a little rubber mallet and turn him around for the ever-popular prostate exam.